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Barrows or burial mounds, mostly found on the chalk uplands of south Britain. Scattered tribes from Europe. Until approx. -2600. After -3000 the chalkland people started building great circles of earth banks and ditches: henges.
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Stonehenge: second phase of building. Huge bluestoneswere brought to the site from south Wales, which could only have been achieved because the political authority of the area surrounding Stonehenge was recognised over a very large area. // After -2400, the Beakers arrived in southeast Britain from Europe. They soon became leaders of British society. They brought with them a new cereal, barley, which could grow almost anywhere, and also skills to make bronze tools to replace the old stone ones.
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Up to this date, Stonehenge remained the most important centre. From now onwards, the henge civilisation seems to have been overtaken by a settled farming class. The old central control of Stonehenge and other henges was lost. Power had shifted to the Thames valley and southeast Britain. Hillforts replaced henges as the centres of local power.
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The Belgic tribes were the last to arrive. The Celts used the same kind of agriculture as the Bronze Age people but they included the use of iron technology and more advanced ploughing methods. The Celtic tribes were ruled by a warrior class, of which the Druids seemed to have been particularly important members (they knew about religion, law, history, medicine; met in sacred groves of trees, on certain hills, by rivers or river sources).
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Celts: probably came from central Europe or further east. They were technically advanced, knew how to work with iron and could make better weapons than the people who used bronze. They soon began to controll all the lowland areas of Britain, and were joined by new arrivals in one wave after another over the next seven hundred years. Did they invade or come peacefully as a result of trade?
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Julius Caesar invaded the British Isles to subdue the tribes that had been helping rebels in Gaul, France. Casivellanus was a rebellious chieftain in the isles during this period, who led the defence against Julius Caesar but eventually surrendered.
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The Romans invaded again under Claudius' control, and a Roman army occupied Britain.
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She was a Celtic leader who led her tribes against Romans. She nearly drove them from Britain and destroyed London, the Roman capital, before she was defeated and killed.
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First signs that the Roman control of Britain was coming to an end as the empire began to collapse. It was becoming more and more difficult for Roman legions to stop the raiders from crossing Hadrian's Wall. On the European mainland, Germanic groups, Saxons and Franks began to raid the coast of Gaul.
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The Roman army had to return to the continent to defend it from Barbarian attacks. Without the presence of the Romans, the British Isles were vulnerable and prone to attacksand invasions. Arrival of Angles, Saxons, Jutes; Germanic tribes. These invasions brought about a cultural and physical displacement of native Britons.
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Patricius (St. Patrick), an upper-class Roman-Briton, started an evangelical mission of conversion to Christianity in Hibernia (today, Ireland). Thanks to St. Patrick and his followers, Ireland was largely Christian by the early sixth century.
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One of St. Patrick's missionaries, Columba, founded a monastery/missionary school on the island of Iona (Scottish lands). From Iona, Columba sent his missionaries to bring Christianity to the Scots. The evangelical zeal of the Irish missionaries brought them in touch with the people at large.
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Pope Gregory sent Augustine to Canterbury, in Kent. Although “success seemed rapid” at the beginning, “the skin-deep conversion of an Anglo-Saxon king and his household was shaky at best." Many of them apostatized and went back to the old ways.
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After gaining control of Northumbria in 633, the Christian King Oswald summoned his bishop Aidan (an Irish monk) to convert it permanently. Monks went to Lindisfarne and bishop Aidan built a monastery on the island of Lindisfarne
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Synod of Whitby: “a meeting held by the Christian Church of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria to decide whether to follow Celtic or Roman usages.” The King eventually favoured the Roman party.
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By this date, the Anglo-saxon invaders had settled and different kingdoms arose - Heptarchy: Northumbria, Wessex, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex, Sussex and Kent
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The "Great heathen army", composed of members of different Scandinavian tribes, arrived. Their aim was to occupy and control the lands that they harried by installing kings who were sympathetic to them, e.g. in Northumbria and Mercia
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By this time, only king Alfred of Wessex/King Alfred the Great held out against the vikings. He won a decisive battle: the Battle of Edington. An army of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex under Alfred the Great defeated the Great Heathen Army led by Guthrum.
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King Alfred managed to reestablish English control of London. Vikings were now constrained to the territory of the Danelaw
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King Alfred died. His son, Edward the Elder, succeeded to the throne and started to reassert control over the Danelaw (until 924)
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Edward the Elder. In 1920 the King of Scots, the Danish ruler of York and the ruler of English Northumbria submitted to his authority. In 1924 he died and was succeeded by his son AEthelstan.
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Expulsion of Eric Bloodaxe as the first wave of Viking invasions came to a close. Although they had been defeated, the Vikings did not disappear from the British Isles completely. They kept control of bases in Scandinavia, Dublin and the Isle of Man.
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AEthelred makes a treaty with the Duchy of Normandy to deny Viking raiders access to a base. The Danes attack Essex. AEthelred responds by enforcing a policy of tax collection to pay off the Vikings: Danegeld.
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Due to a series of annual attacks and major raids carried out by the King of Denmark, AEthelred had to flee to Normandy with his wife, Emma, daughter of the Duke of Normandy, and their three children. Swein Forkbeard, a Dane, became King of England.
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Swine Forkbeard died and the witan recalled AEthelred, who regained the throne.
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AEthelred died and his son Edmund Ironside was accepted as king by the English, but he died in November that same year. Canute, King of Denmark, son of Swein Forkbeard, invaded again and won the throne. His reign (1016-1035) “was marked both by political stability and economical prosperity.”
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Canute married Emma, AEthelred’s widow, to legitimise his monarch right and his claim to the throne.
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Canute died. His two sons, Harold (illegitimate son) and Harthacnut (legitimate son by Emma) quarrelled for the throne. Harold, illegitimate viking son of Canute became Regent
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Harold, illegitimate viking son of Canute died from an illness. Harthacnut, son of Canute and Emma (AEthelred's widow, daughter of the duke of Normandy), became king.
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Harthacnut died. Godwin of Wessex, a powerful Anglo-Danish courtier, secured the throne for Emma and Ethelred’s son Edward the Confessor. Turning point in history. (AEthelred belonged to the House of Wessex, i.e. the Anglo-Saxon line. Edward was a very religious man. He had strong ties with the Normans, -bishoprics and land grants- for he had been raised there, and he had promised the throne to William, the Duke of Normandy). Edward the Confessor married Godwin’s daughter and became his puppet.
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Harold Godwinson, Norman, chosen by the Witan. He faced an attack by Harald Haardrada, King of Norway, helped by his own brother Tostig. He defeated them at Stamford Bridge.
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Harold Godwinson faced a new threat from the south: he was attacked by William, duke of Normandy. In the Battle of Hastings, William killed Harold and his brothers.
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William I of Normandy became the first Norman king of England. William the Conqueror. These events mark the end of the Anglo-Saxon period. King William I engaged in an encroachment of local power and property. The Normans dispossessed the Anglo-Saxon nobility, which brought about a number of rebellions.
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William I led the Harrying of the North, a series of pillage, destructive raids and constant attacks through which he dispossessed the Anglo-Saxon nobility and gave everything to the barons who had supported him, in order to crush down his opposition. He started to build castles every 15-16km, to demonstrate and maintain his power.
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William I ordered the compilation of the Domesday Book, a survey listing all the landholdings in England along with their pre-Conquest and current holders.
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In 1095 Pope Urban II in Rome summoned the Christendom, to take the cross and participate in a military campaign to win back Jerusalem for Christianity. He promised knights of Europe forgiveness of their sins in exchange. Considering that Jerusalem had been taken by the Muslims 600 years before, we may wonder: was it just a campaign against the Muslim control of Jerusalem, or was also he aiming at a rebirth and rejuvenation of Christian faith?
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Ended with the capture of Jerusalem, recovered from the Muslims after a long siege.
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Main conflict: lay investiture
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After William's death, Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, refused to do homage to his successor, Henry I. Meanwhile, Henry I had appointed several new bishops who had no spiritual authority without the blessing of the archbishop. Conflict over lay investiture. Who should appoint/anoint bishops and prelates? Finally the king agreed that only the Church could create bishops, but in return the Church agreed that bishops would pay homage to the king for the lands owned by their bishoprics.
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Although Jerusalem was recovered in 1099, other campaigns were carried out to take back the rest of the territories occupied by the Muslims. The Crusades followed religious and geopolitical imperatives. From the 11th to the 13th century, wars were fought for the possession of the Holy Land/surroundings of Jerusalem, which were highly valued because of the advantages they implied for trade: control of these lands meant direct access to the far East, trade in spices. Outremer. Colonisation sample.
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Conflict with Thomas Becket
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Henry II's friend Thomas Becket was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, Henry hoped that Becket would help him bring the Church more under his control. At first he refuses, then he gave in, and then he changed his mind again and fled to France. Conflict over the benefit of clergy.
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Becket returned to France determined to resist the king. Henry II is said to have ordered the murder of Becket. The Church reacted and he was canonised.
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Richard Lionheart vs Saladin
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John Lackland, Richard Lionheart’s brother and Henry II’s son, became king. He “had already made himself unpopular with the three most important groups of people, the nobles, the merchants and the Church”. He was greedy and abused of his power terribly in several ways.
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King John the Lackland lost the lands in Normandy, France, which brought about the end of the Angevin Empire. He had failed his duty as a feudal lord and as duke of Normandy, since he had taken his barons’ money but had not been able to protect their land.
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King John quarreled with the Pope over the appointment of the Archbishop of Canterbury. “The Pope called on the king of France to invade England, and closed every church in the country.” (McDowall: 28). Christians were very worried about going to hell, to the extent that in 1214 John had to accept the pope’s candidate for archbishop.
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Magna Carta, “the Great Charter”, was a charter of rights imposed on King John the Lackland by the barons. It was the first to underpin civil liberties in a rule of law. Written in Latin, it represented a contract between the king and “the community of the realm” (=just the barons).
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King John Lackland died. His son, Henry III, who was 9 years old, was crowned king. As he was only a child, for the first 16 years of his reign he was tied to the control of powerful nobles and Magna Carta.
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Proto Parliament: “When in 1253 Henry returned to campaign in France, his brother, Richard of Cornwall, found he could not raise the requisite money, and summoned a ‘parlement’, a discussion, composed not just of barons and bishops but, for the first time, of shire representatives. This proto-parliament first met at Easter 1254.”
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They brought about a revision of Magna Carta, and it was decided that ‘foreigners’ should be “expelled from all affairs of state, together with papal emissaries and overseas bankers.” “The provisions went beyond a charter of civil liberties to address the structure of monarchical government. A council of fifteen under Simon de Montfort was put above the king’s council of twenty-four, accountable to a parliament that would meet three times a year whether or not summoned by the monarch.”
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de Montfort summoned a new parliament including two knights from each shire and two burgesses ‘elected’ from each city. It is considered as the ‘first’ English parliament, for its purpose was to discuss not only taxes, but also any other matter of public concern. However, this new parliament did not meet until a year later, and dissolved itself within a month.
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After Henry died in 1272, his son Edward I took the throne. He was “the first to create a ‘representative institution’ which could provide the money he needed. This institution became the House of Commons [...] [which] contained a mixture of ‘gentry’ (knights and other wealthy free men from the shires) and merchants from the towns.”
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In 1275 Edward I commanded shires and towns/boroughs to send two “commoners” to act as representatives of their local community in his parliament. They were unwilling, because they did not want the king to take their money, but at the same time they did not dare risk his anger.
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Model parliament in the reign of Edward I. Barons, bishops, representatives of the shires and burgesses were summoned.
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The king of France attempted to interfere with England’s trade: he took over part of Gascony, and hindered the trade of the regional wine for England’s corn and woollen cloth, which used to be very profitable for the English Crown. Soon after, he tried to force the duke of Burgundy to accept his authority.
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England began a long struggle with the French Crown. At a time in which the French king was determined to expand his authority and control all his nobles, the duke of Burgundy and the English king remained rebellious and had refused to recognise the overlordship of the French king.
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When the Capet line came to an end with Charles IV, Edward III declared war on France: through his mother, he claimed the right to the French crown.
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Battle of Crécy: English longbowmen soundly defeated French cavalry near the river Somme in Picardy. 1346-1347 Siege of Calais, which would remain English until 1558.
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Bubonic plague pandemic. Reached England. By summer 1349 it covered the entire country, before dying down by December. Decimated the population. In the long term, the decrease in population caused a shortage of labour, with subsequent rise in wages, resisted by the landowners, which caused deep resentment among the lower classes. The Peasants' Revolt of 1381 was largely a result of this resentment, and even though the rebellion was suppressed, in the long term serfdom was ended in England.
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Battle of Poitiers: Edward the Black Prince, son of Edward III, captured the French king John II and France plunged into chaos. He later bought his freedom for £500,000.
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Treaty of Brétigny. It marked the end of the first phase of the Hundred Years War (1337-1360) and guaranteed that Edward III would renounce his claim to the French throne as long as the French recognised the control he had re-established over the areas previously held by the English crown. Plus, the English would pay no homage to the king of France.
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The plague returned to England, this time causing the death of around 20% of the population. After this the plague continued to return intermittently throughout the 14th and 15th centuries, in local or national outbreaks. From this point on its effect became less severe, and one of the last outbreaks of the plague in England was the Great Plague of London in 1665–66.
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From 1377 to 1380 he imposed a series of taxes
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Wycliff, one of the most important figures in the Lollard movement, is burned at the stake
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Henry IV of Lancaster became king after Richard II was deposed.
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Henry V became king of a kingdom that was peaceful and united. He felt able to begin fighting the French again. However, Henry V died before the French king, and the thrones of England and France were inherited by Henry V's baby son, Henry VI, who would be crowned in Paris and became king.
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Henry V renewed the claim to the throne of France and defeated the French army in the Battle of Agincourt. He was then able to capture most of Normandy and the surrounding areas
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Henry V was finally recognised as heir to the French throne by the treaty of Troyes and also married the French king’s daughter, Katherine of Valois
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Inherited the throne when he was just a baby.
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Siege of Orleans: 12 October 1428 – 8 May 1429. This was the French royal army's first major military victory after the defeat at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, and also the first while Joan of Arc was with the army.
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Battle of Patay: 18 June 1429. Decisive victory for the French.
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“The first popular revolt since 1381, led by the obscure but talented John Cade, who seized London for a few days and denounced the king’s ministers.” (Morgan: 203). A major rebellion against the government of King Henry VI of England; although the uprising was suppressed, it contributed to the breakdown of royal authority that led to the War of the Roses (1455-1487) between the houses of York and Lancaster.
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Battle of Castillon: 17 July 1453, “Gascony [...] was invaded by the triumphant French armies, and after their victory at Castillon on 17 July 1453, the English territories in the south-west were entirely lost. This was the most shattering blow of all: Gascony had been English since the twelfth century, and the long-established wine and cloth trades with south-west France were seriously disrupted. Of Henry V’s ‘empire’, only Calais now remained.”. End of the HYW
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The defeat in the Hundred Years War and the periods of mental illness that affected king Henry VI had been raising doubt among the nobles about who should be ruling the country. The instability in England and the enmity between the Lancaster and York families were the main reasons why the war began.
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After taking up his father's struggle, Edward IV, son of the duke of York, won the throne. He imprisoned Henry VI in the Tower of London for 9 years.
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Edward IV returned to England with a new army, supported by the merchants of London and the southeast of England, and defeated the Lancasters. “At last Edward IV was safe on the throne. Henry VI died in the Tower of London soon after, almost certainly murdered.”
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His son Edward V, who was only twelve years old, was supposed to take the throne. However, he was never crowned, and Edward IV’s own brother, Richard of Gloucester, deposed him and took the throne, becoming King Richard III. Edward V was sent, together with his brother, to the Tower of London, and they were never seen again. Responsibility for their deaths is usually attributed to Richard III (Shakespeare wrote a play about it) but his guilt was never proved due to a lack of evidence
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When Henry Tudor, duke of Richmond, challenged the king “with a very distant claim to royal blood through John of Gaunt [...] many discontented lords, both Lancastrians and Yorkists, joined him.” At the Battle of Bosworth Field, half of the king’s army shifted their allegiance to Henry Tudor, and Richard III was defeated and killed. “Henry Tudor was crowned king immediately, on the battlefield”, thus becoming Henry VII. End of the War of the Roses.
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In order to reinforce his claim to the throne, and in an attempt to unite the houses who had been at war for so long, he married Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV and niece of Richard III. // The country was bankrupt, and Henry VII needed to replenish the treasury. Imposed taxes and fines. There were some rebellions but his reign came to a good end. Funded expeditions and built a fleet of ships. He forged diplomatic arrangements
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Henry VII made an important trade agreement with the Netherlands which allowed England to grow again (England's trading position had been badly damaged during the 15th century, and particularly during the War of the Roses.
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Henry VIII became king. At some point awarded the title Fidet defensor (defender of the fate) by the pope. His break with the church was more political rather than religiousor doctrinal. Act of Supremacy, Act of Succession, Act of Treason. Inherited a full treasury and spent it al. Waged war against France. The Rough Wooing of Scotland.
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1510 Henry VIII married Catherine of Aragon
By 1526, Catherine of Aragon had not had a son who survived infancy and was unlikely to do so. Henry tried to persuade the pope to allow him to get divorced. Wolsey, his minister, hoped that he would be able to persuade the pope as well, but the pope was controlled by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and king of Spain, Catherine’s nephew. For political and family reasons, he did not agree to Henry’s divorce, and neither did the pope. -
Until 1536, Several Acts of Parliament were passed, through which he made the break with Rome legal. England became politically a Protestant country, although the popular religion was still Catholic.
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Until 1539. Henry VIII took the Reformation one step further. Thomas Cromwell took the role of the king’s chief minister. Together, they carried out a survey of Church property. They closed 560 monasteries and other religious houses. To make money, but also to become popular with the rising classes of landowners and merchants (to whom he would give or sell the land, while monks and nuns were thrown out.)
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Raised by his uncles in the Protestant faith, he was a firm believer. He pushed the evangelical reform even further.
Although most English people still believed in the old Catholic religion, and less than half the English were Protestant by belief, a new prayer book was issued to include the complete forms of service for daily and Sunday worship in English.to make sure that all churches followed the new Protestant religion. Most people were not very happy.
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Mary I became queen. Super catholic, persecuted and burned protestants at the stake. Married her cousin Philip II of Spain to make alliances with Spanish and Catholics. Had phantom pregnancies. Died.
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Elizabeth I, Mary I's half sister, became queen. Protestant. Undergoes process so people can identify her as a virgin queen. Henry VIII's daughter by Anne Boleyne. Two big challenges: first, to establish Religious Settlement to standardise and unify the religious practices. La Gran Empresa: Philip's ships were going to attack England. Refusal to marry.
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Since 1570 English ships had been attacking Spanish ships as they returned from America, because Spain refused to allow England to trade freely with the Spanish American colonies.
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In Scotland, son of Mary Queen of Scots, James VI, started to rule at the age of 12. Showed great skill. He knew that if he behaved correctly he could expect to inherit the throne of England after Elizabeth’s death, because he was her closest relative.
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By this date, most English people believed that to be a Catholic was to be an enemy of England. The Catholic plots and the dangers of a foreign Catholic invasion had changed people’s feelings.
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Partly because Mary had named Philip of Spain as her heir to throne of England, and Philip had decided to invade. Conquering England was the step previous to defeating Dutch rebels in the Netherlands. He had been building a great fleet of ships, but Francis Drake attacked and destroyed part of the fleet in Cadiz harbour. The Spanish enterprise was delayed. Philip built a new Armada, but most of the ships were designed to carry soldiers - the few fighting ships were not as good as the English.
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Battle between Spanish Armada and British Navy. Elizabeth summoned her soldiers and won their hearts. The Spanish armada was later defeated more by bad weather than by the English guns. Glorious moment for England, but not the end of the war with Spain (Peace would only be made after Elizabeth’s death).
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the East India Company, established mainly because the Dutch controlled the entire spice trade with the East Indies (Indonesia). Spices were extremely important and profitable, and the English were determined to have a share in this rich trade, but they were unsuccessful at first. The EIC began operating in India
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Elizabeth died (70y.o.) and James VI of Scotland gained the throne, becoming James I of England. Start of the STUART dynasty. Few had seen it coming. Many did not like the idea of having a new king from Scotland, considered to be the wild northern neighbour. The fact that England accepted him suggests that its leading statesmen had confidence in James’s skills.